How Not to Lose the COVID-19 Communication War

COVID-19 has put science in a tricky spot. The good news, as National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt explains, is that scientific expertise is back in high demand: “When the chips are down and everything is on the line and you can be the next person in the hospital bed, it’s the experts that you want to listen to.” But there’s a serious potential downside for science in having the public’s ear: today’s high-profile expert assertions can be disproven by tomorrow’s events. For example, if public health interventions such as social distancing are effective, COVID-19-related deaths in the United States could stay well below predictions offered by epidemiological models. Successful policy interventions might seemingly prove early expert estimates “wrong.”

This dilemma illustrates a much larger problem facing scientists, public health professionals, journalists, and science communication practitioners: a focus on accuracy and scientific facts is the wrong and even potentially misleading measure of good communication during this global pandemic.